Renewable Cogen Asia

Biogas generation from industrial waste water would benefit African society by providing a clean fuel from renewable feed-stocks and would help in alleviate the energy poverty.  Unlike Asia, Africa does not have much experience in industrial biogas power generation.

In Africa, the highest potential to produce biogas power is from cassava process mill waste water, palm oil mill waste water and sugar mill waste water.

Apart from this, cattle farms, food industries also have considerable potential to implement biogas power plants.  The revenue generation potential from CDM CER would support the project development.

We observed highest diesel usage in African countries and even within the same country the price variation is very high (upto 100%) from one place to another. Such situation is ideal to develop biogas power projects as the revenue from avoided cost of diesel is very high.  We also came across projects with equity IRR higher than 60-80% in Africa due to diesel replacement.

While developing the projects in Africa, the project developers need to understand that it takes more time to develop a project in Africa when compared to that of Asia.

The total investment cost is also higher in Africa when compared to that of Asia. But at the same time, the returns are also higher in Africa.  Industries and development organisations can play important role in the development of biogas power plants in Africa.